As a way to promote awareness of multiple sclerosis (MS) and his new foundation, daytime Emmy-award winner and MS patient Montel Williams visited BWH on Monday, March 19. After his appointment with neurologist Michael Olek, DO, Williams took time to speak with the media about the Multiple Sclerosis Center and his own personal battle with MS.
“I have been working with BWH since day one,” said Williams. “When I was first diagnosed with MS two years ago, I met with Howard L. Weiner [MD, director, MS Center and co-director, Center for Neurologic Diseases]. He told me that this new Center was going to be the most comprehensive MS center in the country, and it definitely is. These guys are head and shoulders above some of the finest hospitals in the world.”
MS is a neurological disease that currently affects 500,000 people in the US alone. The disease causes a patient’s own immune systems to start attacking his or her brain and spinal cord, which leaves often-painful lesions and can eventually render the patient physically disabled.
Since being diagnosed with the disease, Williams comes to the MS Center every six to seven months for a routine check-up and exam, which he says is mostly for his “own peace of mind.” Though he experiences some physical discomfort on occasion, particularly in his feet, the treatment he has received at the MS Center has helped keep his condition under control.
“I currently bench press 280 pounds, but that’s less than I used to,” he said, adding that he has recently taken up snowboarding as well. “It’s all relative. I have noticed a reduction in my overall strength, but not in my endurance. Two years ago, other doctors would have told me to forget about sports, which shows how far MS research has come during that time.”
Called the “most sophisticated MS center in the world,” BWH's MS Center is a collaborative effort with MGH that offers comprehensive clinical care; a magnetic resonance imaging facility dedicated to monitoring disease progression; and a clinical immunology laboratory to perform MS-related blood tests. The clinic’s new MRI scanner is also one-of-a-kind—it constructs 3-D images of the brain to measure the volume of MS lesions and, over time, whether or not they are growing.
Williams and Weiner also discussed the new 10-year Natural History Study the Center has recently begun. The study will follow 1,000 MS patients in what will be the most comprehensive, long-term study of the disease ever done. Along with MRI imaging, the study will involve blood testing, clinical evaluation, psychological testing and quality of life assessment.
In the meantime, Williams is continuing his work with his talk show and has even founded his own fund-raising organization—the Montel Williams MS Foundation —which has currently raised $300,000 to promote research studying MS.
“My show and my life have not changed because of this disease,” Williams said. "I could have sat back and given up two years ago, or I could continue to do everything I’ve done. I'm ill, but I’m not weak; and I’ll do everything I can to continue living my life to its fullest.”